WA: Thru the wheatbelt to Lake Grace via Wave Rock

5 Feb 2006

Kalgoorlie has been great, but it's hot and we're thirsting for more coastline, so we head north west back towards Albany on the coast. The road takes you through the WA wheatbelt - not that different from the NSW wheatbelt to the eye - just miles and miles of flat lands covered in crops.

We come across a big sign advertising "Wave Rock" and end up stumbling across what is apparently a big tourist drawcard for WA - one we've never heard of. Wave Rock is a geological wonder, standing about 15 metres high and looks like a cresting wave, locked in stone. The LP guide book says that people do the 700km round trip from Perth in a day to see it ... personally, I'd feel a little let down if I'd made the effort. It's quite a bizarre place - a resort that looks completely abandoned, surrounded by salt pans, and the obligatory souvenir shop, and not much else.

We don't have a fixed plan and consulting the map there's not much to see between Kalgoorlie and the coast, so we take a bunch of back roads and end up at Lake Grace in the late afternoon. Stu is desperate to watch the end of the Aust/Sth Africa test, so we pull into the only pub in town.

A few beers later we've made friends with the locals who are all brylcream and stubbies and who are keen to express their distrust of "the Eastern States" and make us firmly aware that we, as Sydney folk, live off the hard work of Western Australia. Seems to be a common theme in regional WA. It's all in good fun though. The whole area around Lake Grace has been flooded, and we had to cross some washed out roads to get into town. The publican shows us photos he took that day of the floodlands surrounding the town. After talking with these fellas you get a feel for just how hard it must be to work on the land in this country.

It's Sunday night, so the cook is rustling up roasts, so dinner's sorted. End up having a few more beers with the locals and checking in to the Lake Grace Caravan Park across the way for the night. The wind is up, but we're tired enough not to care.